Demand Reason

Posts Tagged ‘congress’

It won’t come fast. It won’t be easy. It might just make you want to Netflix and chill. But, make no mistake, we need a political revolution to fix Washington D.C. On Thursday night, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews hosted a town hall with Bernie Sanders. During one of many testy moments, Matthews asks Sanders how he will push his plans through a Republican controlled congress. “Mitch McConnell looks at you the way he looks at President Obama and says forget about it,” says Matthews. “And you know what I say,” replied Sanders. “Hey Mitch, take a look out the window. There are…Read On…

There are two intertwined premises looming large when one argues in favor of supporting Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. The first premise is that Hillary is the more electable candidate. The second premise is that Hillary will have the most success working with a (presumably) Republican-controlled congress. But, should we accept these premises? The Electability Premise This premise posits that Hillary Clinton is more favorable in a general election because Bernie Sanders is too far to the left. The Hillary campaign must frame it this way, because the alternate way of framing it is to say Hillary is more…Read On…

As of April of this year, some twenty states had enacted so-called “religious freedom” laws, with similar legislation pending in another half-dozen states. But why do states need such laws when the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion? The modern “religious freedom” movement, which took hold during the Clinton administration, was in response to a Supreme Court ruling in 1990 (“Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith“). The case “determined that the state could deny unemployment benefits to a person fired for violating a state…Read On…

November was another great month for job growth this year, topping out with over 300,000 new jobs created. 2014 is shaping up to be the best year for job creation since the mid-90s boom times. But after 57 months of consecutive job growth under President Obama, the best streak since records have been kept, along with the economic gains that fueled that job growth, unfortunately average Americans are still waiting for the wealth created in this economy to trickle down to them. Sure, job creation is good, but wages have been stagnant. So, where have all the economic gains gone? You…Read On…

I tuned into my local news last night, and as you might guess, Ebola dominated the broadcast. And maybe that would be acceptable if this coverage, using title graphics like “Ebola Outbreak,” and “Ebola Crisis,” was centered in West Africa. Nope. On Action News (6ABC) in Philadelphia, they have “team coverage” spread out around the country, this country, the United States of America. So, those scare tactic graphics were not targeted at the place on this planet where they might actually offer a more accurate (but still fear-based) portrayal of events. Instead, the local news team would like us to believe we have…Read On…